Martin Luther King Drive (Jersey City)

Martin Luther King Drive is a major street in Jersey City, New Jersey, running for 26 blocks south of Communipaw Avenue. Once called Jackson Avenue (after mid-19th century landowner Jeremiah Jackson), it was renamed in 1976 to honor the slain Civil Rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., who had twice spoken in the city. The avenue was initially one of the city's major shopping districts, but it later went into decline, and 2005 saw a huge surge of murders and the implementation of a curfew on business owners.